Archive for January, 2010

29Jan2009 Awards: Part Two

Television

Television Show:

It only started right at the very end of the year, but it’s Modern Family, it’s hands down one of the funniest, best ensemble casts I’ve ever seen in a show. Even without the rest of the cast I’d put this show as the best juts for Ty Burrell’s performance as Phil Dunphy which is comic gold. Every single member of the cast holds their own, even the young kids and there genuinely isn’t a character I don’t love. If you haven’t seen this yet, then do so, it’s brilliantly funny.

TV Actor:

It’s easy, it’s Ty Burrell from Modern Family. Every single episode I will laugh at him, his face, his actions, his character… genius. It’s amazing he stands out so much when the rest of the cast are so good too.

TV Actress:

I’m going to have to say Kaley Cuoco, she’s really grown into her character Penny on The Big Bang Theory, she’s a perfect example of quality character development. She’s funny, sexy and has great comic expressions and has turned into quite possibly my favourite character on the show.

Movies

Movie:

Slumdog Millionaire if we’re counting movies I saw in 2009 (although I did see it in 2008), but if we’re talking a film I originally saw in 2009, then I’ll say Avatar. I’ll go with the latter for the sake of argument. I’ll say Avatar because it’s a film I really didn’t think I’d like, I thought the CGI would look wrong and that the cast would look awkward acting against such large CGI creatures and I was proven wrong on every count. It delivered a great story, brilliant acting and, for the 2.5 hours it was on, I really couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. It was a packed cinema, not a seat spare and not a single word was spoken by anyone, not even the kids. That’s the sign of a great movie.

Actor:

I’m surprised because it was the very first film I watched in 2009, but Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler really was rather fantastic. Everything about him fit in that role, the beaten up face and body, the voice, and watching him you genuinely believed that he’d been and lived that life and had gotten little return. He deserved his Oscar nod, but having not seen Milk, can’t say Sean Penn didn’t deserve it (as well as Sean Penn being one of my 3 favourite actors ever) but this really signaled the return of Mickey Rourke as a leading man.

Actress:

I’m in love with her anyway, but she was sensational in Julie and Julia, so I’m going to go with Amy Adams. I really hope she gets an Oscar nod for the role because she was brilliant, but all the press seems to go to, in fairness, probably the greatest actress to ever grace the big screen, Meryl Streep. It’s a great film which I absolutely adored, but for me, it’s really Amy Adams who was the star of the show.

Who should retire?:

Uwe Boll. Seriously, fuck off and stop giving the impression that video games don’t have quality stories that can be made into good movies. You’re single handedly limiting an entire side of the media!

Music

Album:

The best album of 2009 wasn’t actually released in 2009, it’s Amy MacDonald – This is the Life, I listened to this album at least once a week. I absolutely love every single on this album, there’s not a single track that gets skipped. It’s a musical masterpiece for me.

Single:

Amy MacDonaTrack 6, Let’s Start a Band. It just builds up into the most amazing ending and it just gets me smiling and moving around.

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28Jan2009 Awards: Part One

Every year I do some awards where I jot down a whole bunch of things from the previous year that stood out, from games, protagonists, music and movies. I’ll be doing it a little differently this year as I plan to write something about each particular thing and plan to keep adding to them over the coming days. To change it up a little from the talk of games, the first area I’m going to cover is going to be football.

Football

Team of the Year:

I always feel a little dirty voting against Manchester United, but last year you really, really couldn’t look past Barcelona. I genuinely feel we should have beaten Barcelona and forgoing an injury to Owen Hargreaves and a ridiculous suspension to Darren Fletcher then we would have set up differently and, I’m confident, have beaten them on the night. Aside from that though, Barcelona really were a cut above the rest, from an insane number of goals shared across their three strikers, Messi, Henry and Eto’o to the complete domination of the midfield through the silky skills of Andres Iniesta and passing quality of Xavi. All over the pitch they had stars that performed week in and week out, they definitely deserved their plaudits.

Best Player:

Everyone seems to say that Messi was the best player last season, I really don’t agree, sure he bagged a load of goals but he doesn’t do it on his own. For me, both Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique stood out at Barcelona above anyone else last year. I do love my defenders, but for me, the mercurial Iniesta deserves it, he was the heart of the Barcelona midfield, rescued them against Chelsea (the biggest fix ever) and seemed to be an integral part to every single flowing move that Barcelona put together. If I could take any player at Manchester United right now then Iniesta would be the one, he just oozes class.

Honourable Mention:

I’ll go with Gerard Pique. I was always a huge fan of him at Manchester United and was incredibly dismayed when we opted to keep Jonny Evans, not a bad defender, but not one that I’d rate too highly, he certainly didn’t have the presence or reading of the game of Pique, who, since joining Barcelona has only gone on to prove me right, dominating the back line as well as being a real presence up front from set-pieces. Pique is good enough to have a starring role in any defensive line-up in world football, I just wish it was still ours.

Biggest Disappointment:

Without a doubt, for me, the biggest disappointment has been Anderson’s progress at Manchester United. He’s gone from one of the most promising young players in the world game to a player who is clearly terrified at the prospect of shooting, no longer goes in for tackles and often looks lazy as well as trying the killer ball a little too often. His passing ability and strength on the ball are still very good, and there’s no doubt that a lack of playing minutes has impacted him hugely, but in the last 24 months we’ve seen Anderson completely superseded by Fletcher, who has gone from being inferior to becoming a world class midfielder. I have no doubt that Anderson will leave Manchester United in the future, which I really should be more upset about seeing as he is so promising, and I have no doubt that at another club he’ll shine and become a real star, but he really needs to improve his attitude and work ethic as well as working on the finer attributes of his game.

Honourable Mention:

This is an obvious one, it’s the player I never wanted, and certainly never at the ridiculous price paid, Dimitar Berbatov. I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s lazy, certainly not like many others would, we knew what we were getting, but he could perhaps try a little harder with his effort getting into the box, try a few more shots. He has been excellent at holding up the ball, he is one of the best around for it, but he should have adapted other areas of his game. A good example would be his pace, people think he’s slow, but he’s not, he’s actually pretty quick, but the nature of his game is to drop lower than the front man, which doesn’t happen at Man Utd because Rooney plays in a free role naturally. I never wanted him, we could have bought so much better for £30m and to think we passed on a £20m Fernando Torres to buy a £30m Berbatov is enough to boil my piss. Argh!

Goal of 2009:

This should be easy, but it’s really not, there are 5 goals that come to mind, 4 of which are Man Utd, 3 of those scored by Cristiano Ronaldo. The none Man Utd goal was by Maynor Figueroa of Wigan, a free-kick quickly taken from his own half which beat Sorenson off his line. Another is the free-kick by Ronaldo against Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final which stands out for two reasons, the fact it was over 40 yards out and secondly due to the commentators line, “Too far out, even for Ronaldo… Oooohhh”. The other goal by Ronaldo in the same game also stands out, a text book example of the counter-attack.

My second favourite though was Federico Macheda, a goal that was not only of the highest skill and quality, but a goal that arguably won us the title last year at a time when we were wobbling more than ever. Receiving the ball on the left hand side of the area, Macheda flicks the ball back underneath himself before quickly striking the ball around Brad Friedel and into the far right hand side of the goal. To win the game. In the 92nd Minute. On his debut. At 17. Brilliant.

The winner however should be no surprise, a Ronaldo wonder strike that rightly won the official UEFA goal of the season award. In need of a win after a poor first leg against Porto, Man Utd needed an away goal, step forward Cristiano Ronaldo to rifle hom a goal from 40 yards into the opposite top corner to progress us through to the Semi-Finals of the Champions League. Breathtaking.

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27JanSick, Ill and Shaky

I’ve not been sleeping well, not for a while. I will go to bed, often incredibly tired, yet wake up wide awake a couple of hours later, completely unable to sleep and end up waking up, this has actually been quite handy when it comes to watching the Australian Open Tennis, but for very little else. I’m now waking up at around 3.30am-4.30am with alarming regularity, this is also a problem I had prior to starting work and seems to have come back. Last night was no different, absolutely dead on my feet, blurry eyes, fuzzy head, you know, the kind of feeling you have when you know that you absolutely, positively must have sleep. Imagine this happening several times a day and that’s currently where I’m at.

For the last few days I’ve complained about being cold. Very cold in fact, whether its in a hot shower, in a hot room or even wrapped up in layers of clothing, so I know I’m not exactly in tip-top condition. Today I had to clear one of the two remaining piles of gravel that were stopped short at the end of last year, firstly due to wind, then of course the snow. It was rather nippy outside, which didn’t help, so I wrapped up warm, overly warm really because I would be shifting an awful lot of gravel, thick socks, t-shirt, jumper, second jumper, hoody, thick jeans and gloves. Again, I was cold. I ended up shifting all the gravel, I genuinely didn’t feel bad, got in, decided that I’d like to get some dinner prior to playing football on the night, took off my clothes to put them in the wash and have never been hit so quickly with the feeling of sickness in my life. I was actually dripping with sweat, shaking and felt like I was about to throw up for absolutely no reason at all.

I hate being sick, quite fortunate then that I seldom am due to a rather bad-ass immune system that has stopped me getting pretty much everything ever, the last illnesses being about 5-6 years ago when I had Labyrinthitis and a cold in the same year. I’m sure that whatever it is that I have will wash over soon enough, but I really don’t like being bad.

The positive side of course was that I managed to get several hours of Mass Effect done this morning which, due to the lack of sleep through the night has lef

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26JanMass Effect

I have a confession to make. I’ve never completed Mass Effect. I do own it, in fact, I have owned the Limited Edition of it since its day of release and did play it, and loved it, a lot until in my infinite wisdom, when my friend Lee bought his Xbox360, offered to lend him “any game you like, any at all”, to which he promptly picked Mass Effect, thus ruining my momentum in playing it. He actually took it and in fairness, played it, completed it, and loved it, for over 3 months, so it is a little hard to be overly annoyed because he did love it and it welcomed him into the wonderful world of Xbox360.

I always intended to go back to it, I even bought the ‘Bringing Down the Sky’ downloadable content as soon as it was released and continued to feature it in my most recommended 360 games lists over the last couple of years. I have decided to go back to it because of Mass Effect 2.
I’m not blind, I knew Mass Effect 2 was coming, hell, my friend Neil left a job at Bizarre Creations, moved to Canada to work for BioWare on Mass Effect 2. It’s not even that I’ve not had enough time to fit it in over the last couple of years, despite other fantastic games such as BioShock, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, etc… It’s just that… well, I don’t know, I’m stupid I guess.

All throughout this period of time, right down to the impending release of its sequel, I’ve had one thought in my head, do I continue from where I am, quite progressed, certainly character developed the way I wanted to be, and possibly forget about all the wonderful nuances  that the game offered when I originally played it, or do I take one huge leap backwards, start from scratch and take it all in?
To give full quality to the continuation of the story line in the second game, released this Friday in the UK, I decided that I really, really should be starting from the beginning because my knowledge of the story can only lend to the quality of story from the second game, so that’s what I’ve done, Commander Shepard circa February 2008 is no more, instead he has been re-built, although not quite better, stronger or faster… yet.

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25JanMy Top 5 Games of 2009

Below are my personal favourite 5 games of 2009, in order, for your viewing pleasure. Let me know whether you agree or disagree with any of them, I’m interested in hearing your opinions.

5. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was, for me, the undoubted king of Playstation 3 games prior to the release of this years biggest PS3 exclusive, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Many people do regard this as the best game of 2009 and there are definitely elements that stand-out from the crowd, in particular the environments and graphics as well as the compelling cut-scenes which were so good that many animated movies pale in comparison. Sadly, the game as a whole didn’t maintain those standards in other areas…
The actual game play is nothing new, certainly nothing we’ve not seen from the two most obvious influences, Tomb Raider and Gears of War and Uncharted 2, for me didn’t match either, Tomb Raider for the platforming and Gears of War for the shooting. In fact, if any area were truly need of a complete re-write it would be the gun-play which feels so archaic it’s difficult to believe this comes 4 years into the once called “Next Gen” series of consoles, feeling more akin to a Playstation 2 game and is something I really struggled to overcome and when something is so far from pushing boundaries (at least in a forwards direction) I really couldn’t put it close to being my game of the year, in fact I feel almost unjustified in putting this ahead of other brilliant titles like Battlefield 1943, Flower, Trials HD and Batman: Arkham Asylum, but when the cut-scenes and comedy from the protagonist, Nathan Drake, are that good I struggled through the shooting sections (of which there were far, far, far too many) if only to see the story progress.
Brilliant around the edges but a little too flawed in its core to be my game of the year.

4. UFC 2009: Undisputed

Without doubt one of the hardest genre’s of game to make believable, Yukes managed to make what are essentially two complete opposites of game mesh into something that is not only in-depth, but almost impossible to master, a rock-solid stand-up fighting game as well as the most well composed grappling game I’ve ever played.
UFC 2009 Undisputed can be an unusually harsh game with its fast paced stand-up which can, with the right timing, result in punishing, instant knockouts which work both for and against you throughout your Single-Player in career as well as online in the rather fantastically implemented multiplayer.
This is one of those rare games that with a lot of practice (it took me around 16 hours to get the hang of both stand-up and grappling to the point I wouldn’t get bossed around too easily online) reaps rewards and quite often, memories, of which UFC 2009 Undisputed holds my gaming memory of the year, a 3-second online knockout against an opponent who only managed to get a “Hel..” on voice-comms before a rather comical bout of language so blue it makes a Smurf seem off-colour. Marvellous.
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24JanLeeds: The return

I’m not long since back and I’m pretty darned tired, so it’s going to be a really short post because I’m going for a sleep!

Overall I had a really good time and although we didn’t go to the Taps we did get to go to Halo(!) so I was really happy about that one, and it was fantastic. It’s everything you’d hope from a converted church nightclub, massive stained glass windows, elevated DJ’s booth, smoke, lights, amazingly loud and clear sound… oh yeah, and Faithless! It was amazing. We also did The Arc, Bourbon, The Box and a few other places, so we got to see more of the sights and sounds of the Leeds night scene, a few I hadn’t seen before too, so I was happy about that.

Unfortunately the hotel we stayed in was quite frankly a disgrace, it was an absolute shit-hole, the second beds didn’t have any sheets (in any of the rooms), so thinking about how many people have slept on a bare mattress (or worse) and in one of the three rooms we had (thankfully not mine) there was blood on the mattress, so I don’t envy whoever slept on that. The shower doors had no handles (and a glory hole into the shower as a result), no locks on the toilets, no toilet paper in one of the rooms (ours did) and all “three bedroom rooms” were actually 1 double bed and one single bunk above, and despite being meant for 3 people, only included 2 towels. There isn’t one redeeming feature about the Etap hotel, so don’t stay there. Ever. Oh, and there were a load of people who thought that shouting down the hallways and banging doors made for a better alternative than being civil and sleeping… So now you understand why I’m actually tired.

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23JanLeeds: A night out

Tonight I’ll be going out with a bunch of friends in Leeds to celebrate my friend Matthews 26th Birthday. If you’ve never been to Leeds for a night out then quite frankly you’re missing out, it really is rather fantastic and has pubs, bars and clubs to suit every one of your needs.

I’m hoping we’ll cover a few places I’ve been before, like the Taps and The Arc and also finally going somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, Halo, a nightclub made from a converted church that plays dance music. The only real problem we may have is that there’s only 2 of us who like dance music who are going, so I can unfortunately see it being skipped in favour of indie music (which I really don’t like) or RnB which is okay, but I don’t do dancing (because I really can’t), but I do hope we will, it looks absolutely fantastic.

This is a rather short post because I’ll be getting picked up soon and still need to find a way to get ready, get packed and get my stupid hair cut… so much to do, so little time. Preparation fail.

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